Promise of a Lifetime
by colorless ideas
Summary: Sequel to 'Just Breathe' - After 4 years away, Claire is back to La Push and has to face Quil and the pack as she tries to figure out her new place back home.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N.:** This story is set four years after my oneshot '_Just Breathe_'. I strongly suggest you to read that one before reading this - the link is on my profile. It'll help you get some background story and it'll explain Quil's somewhat weird attitude in this first chapter. I'm really excited about this story as I've been working on it for a few months now. I hope you all enjoy it and leave me a pretty review letting me know what you think! Pretty please? It'll seriously make my day! Oh, and this isn't beta-ed. I mean, I read and re-read 364652783 times but I'm sure something must've slipped. So pardon my mistakes in advance!

Alright, here we go...

* * *

With her face leaned on her hand, Claire half-closes her eyes when the sunlight shining from the outside peeks through the crack from the blinds of the huge classroom window. She can feel the warmth of the sun burning her eyelids and her cheeks and slowly dragging her to a dozed state. Her peace and quiet lasts only until the professor's fingers snaps in front of her face, bringing her back to reality.

"Claire? You still haven't answered the question."

She shakes her head a little as she straights herself up, "Oh sorry. What was it again?"

"What would you do if this was your last day on Earth?" he repeats the question but noticing her confused look, he adds, "We're trying to get to our basic needs, what's fundamental to us."

"Oh" Claire slowly nods, "Right."

_That_ question.

Claire is in Newcastle, Australia, where she has been for the last three months. She's got a job at a coffee place down the street where she shared an apartment with four other girls – each one of them from a different country – and is taking a philosophy course at the local university in her spare time. She promised her mother she'd keep her studies while traveling around. It started out as a year long break before college that turned into a four year long backpack through Europe and later Africa and Oceania. Her mother was about to flip and go meet with her so she could drag her back by the hair all the way to La Push, but she didn't. Instead, she tried to be supportive and sided with Claire when her father had the same initial reaction. But what much could they do if she had announced her decision via webcam at a cybercafé in Tuscany when she was just two weeks away from coming back home?

She always knew she needed the world and she felt like the world needed her just as much. But now, sitting on a classroom desk with the sun hitting her face and the professor standing in front of her asking her the ultimate question, she falters. What _is_ she doing here, searching for meaning and answers to her life when she knows exactly where everything that matters to her is? Back home. Her family, her friends, her…

She gets up on a jolt and storms out of the class to never return. Later the day she is packed and at the airport, waiting for her flight. She's going home.

. . .

Drumming her fingers on the dashboard, Claire steals quick glances outside the car window as it drives fast down the road. The middle-aged woman on the driver's seat is bopping her head along with the music coming from the radio but stops to look at the quiet passenger. She clears her throat and dims down the volume.

"So you were adventuring around the world."

There's a small smile on Claire's lips when she turns her head to the woman, "Yeah."

"What made you come home?" she asks with sincere curiosity and dances her eyes from the road to Claire and back to the road again, "You can't have seen everything already."

Claire shrugs and turns her attention to the window, "It felt like it was time."

After her plane landed on Seattle she had to take another small one to Port Angeles. Since this returning was a spur-of-the-moment thing, there was no one to pick her up at the airport; so she hitchhiked to Forks with a really nice old couple and then from Forks to La Push she was riding with a woman named Hilda. She told Claire her life story during the first forty minutes, not that she had asked, and listened intently when the girl resumed her whole life in less than five minutes. Not that she was pushing to get something else more.

Usually Claire doesn't mind telling her life story, she enjoys the exchange of experiences and she has done it over thousand of times during her four years away, every time she met someone new and interesting. But now she just wants to get home.

Ten minutes more and the streets are comfortably familiar to her. Two more turns and she's be where she is supposed to.

"There!" she suddenly jumps on her seat and points toward the small building just ahead of them, "You can pull up here."

"Here?" the woman slows the car down and eyes the place, "You said your father is a lawyer and your mother's a teacher. This doesn't look right" she points out.

The big garage sign outside the shop and the dirty old walls don't inspire a wholesome familiar feeling. But the smile on Claire's lips tells a different story. She glances ahead down the street and points one of the houses.

"Over there, down the street. There's my mom and dad's house" she stares again outside the window and sighs, "This is me."

The woman smiles back at her, "Alright. Good luck, Claire" she unlocks the car doors and adds, "It was nice to meet you."

"Thanks for the ride, Hilda" she opens the door and steps out, swinging her backpack over her shoulders, "It was nice meeting you, too" shutting the door, she waves from the sidewalk, "Bye!"

Claire watches the car drive away and turns back to stare at the sign that reads "A&C Shop". She sighs again and bits her lip before walking forward. The door's open as it's a Friday afternoon and business are going as normal. There isn't any client inside that she can see from the entrance. There's only a pair of legs and a butt turned to her direction as the man hovers over the open hood of the car. Fixing her backpack straps on both of her shoulders, she chuckles.

"Who do I have to sleep with to have some service around here?"

Her tone is mocking and teasing but she might as well have delivered with shouts and death threats by the aggravated way that Quil's head snaps up and turns around to look at her. He has a screwdriver on one of his hands and a dirty rag on the other. His mouth's left hanging open as Claire stands a few feet away from him with her grin growing wider.

"Well, in that case…" she tilts her head to the side, and gives a one-shouldered shrug.

She shifts her body weight from one foot to the other and waits for his reaction. Any reaction. But there's none as he keeps standing in the same position, holding the screwdriver and the rag. Claire's hands that were on her waist are thrown in the air as she sighs exasperated.

"Ok, seriously, it's been four years and all you're gonna do is stand there and stare at me? You're starting to creep me out, Quil."

It's like the sound of his name coming from her mouth snaps him from his daze and in a split of a second he drops what he was holding and his arms are around her waist as he pulls her up to a bone-crushing hug and twirls her around. She laughs out loud at the sudden embrace and hugs him back, tightening her arms around his neck. She's sure her backpack's weighting a ton but he's effortlessly swinging her up.

"I leave for five minutes and you're already groping the costumers?"

Embry's voice comes from the back of the shop and catches Claire's attention when he emerges from behind the car Quil was working on before.

"Embry!" she shrieks right on Quil's ear which makes him wince and free her when she squirms away from him to throw herself at Embry.

"Claire?" he picks her up just effortlessly as the other, "Oh God!" he makes an exaggerated huff sound and bends his knees for dramatic effect, "Let me guess: only bread, pasta and wine in Europe, huh?"

"Shut up!" she squeals and lets go of him to slap him on the arm.

He frowns and rubs his arm where she slapped him even though he barely felt it, then smiles, "I missed you, kid" and gaining a glare from her, he cocks one eyebrow, "It's wrong to call you a kid now, isn't?"

She rolls her eyes, "Thank you. And I kinda missed you, too."

"Only kinda?" he raises both eyebrows when the phone rings in the back office, "Saved by the bell. Don't go anywhere!" he winks and jogs back to where he came from.

Claire doesn't move for good two whole minutes and neither does Quil. He's staring at her back, burning holes on her with the intensity of his stare. She can literally feel his eyes on her skin. When she finally turns around, he catches his breath.

She is so different from the last time he saw her. She's wearing safari shorts, an old dirty green button up shirt that had enough open buttons to reveal the white tank top she wore underneath; and a pair of old beat-up black combat boots. Her hair's tied up on a messy bun with only a single thin little braid hanging from around her neck and down the front of her shoulder; the hair seems lighter too.

"Your mom didn't tell me you were coming" he breaks his silence and crosses his arms against his chest.

She nods, "I didn't tell anyone, I wanted it to be a surprise" she slips the straps from her shoulders and drops the backpack on the floor with a thud, "I just got here."

He eyes the backpack and then fixates on her eyes again, "And you came here."

Placing both hands on her hips, she glances around the garage. Some things really never change; it's exactly just like she remembers the place. Quil's exactly the same as she remembers, too. A pair of cut-off pants, no shirt, barefoot. Almost military buzz cut and way too much muscle for her to concentrate on anything else other than that. When she manages to look back up to his face, she gives him a side smile and shrugs.

"Where else would I go?"

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N.: **Thanks for the reviews and encouragement, guys! I'll keep the chapters pretty much this same lenght so I have time to work on them even when things start to get hectic with college, work, life and stuff. Hope you guys like this one, too! Thoughts, ideas, constructive critisism, suggestions... any feedback is welcome!

**

* * *

**It was Emily on the phone to ask about her car, the one Quil was working on. The moment Embry tells Claire about it she rushes to her house and beats the news of her arrival before her mother can throw a fit. It's exactly as she expected; mom crying and cutting her air supply with hugs and kisses, dad trying to contain his own tears and only tousling her hair, her older sister going around her and trying to steal her backpack to search for whatever souvenir she could find.

After much time going through the family welcome, Claire's able to get into the shower and clean up. Her body's sore from the long flights and car rides and she even manages to take a nap before Grace wakes her up begging for her present. She might as well be the younger sister with all her enthusiasm. Claire laughs at the girl and digs on her backpack before retracting a small box.

"Here. I got you something in Amsterdam."

Grace wrinkles her nose, "Better not be pot."

"Open it!" Claire urges taking a seat on the bed facing her sister.

Inside the box there are a couple of bulbs. Grace is known by her flowers obsession, she even keeps a garden on the backyard that's not to be touched by anyone other than her – not even by mom.

"It's some sort of tulip" Claire explains, "The guy at the store said it's really popular with flower lovers such as yourself so I thought you might like it. You don't have any tulips in your garden, right?"

"No, this is great, Claire. Thank you!" she launches and hugs her sister tightly for the first time since that morning. Since four years ago. The tears surprise both girls.

"Oh God, Grace! Not you, too."

"I'm not crying!" she protests wiping the tears away, "I'm just thankful for my gift and that you remembered me while living off your crazy lifestyle."

Claire laughs and they keep chit chatting some more before the inevitable subject comes up just as Claire almost – almost – forgot about it; Quil. Her sister bits her lip once or twice before speaking up her mind.

"We barely see him nowadays. At first he'd be here every day to hear from you or to see if he could press mom and dad to convince you to come back. But when you said you'd be staying longer…" she trails off and sighs deeply, "I guess he sort of gave up? He still comes by every now and then to check on us or we might see him at Aunt Emily's but… it's definitely not the same. He doesn't ask about you directly anymore and we try not to say your name around him. It's all really stupid 'cause we all know what he's really thinking anyway."

Claire catches her breath and nods slowly, "Yeah…"

"What's stupider is the way you left him. Oh, don't give me that look, Claire! You were wrong and you know it."

"He always knew I was going away. Didn't you know that? Everybody did! I never wanted to stay in La Push after high school; I didn't want to go to college."

Grace rolls her eyes at Claire and for a moment she's playing her big sister role and patronizing the younger one, "It's one thing to know, it's another thing to see. We all knew you wanted to go away but none of us was actually prepared for you to leave. And you left just like that, without even saying anything much to mom and dad. You have no idea how devastated they were."

"Ok, I don't need to hear this right now" Claire gets up and goes to her closet to fish out her blow-dryer.

"When will you need to hear it, then? Because you're gonna have to deal with all this some time. I mean, you can't avoid him forever, you know?"

"I've already seen him" she admits on a low voice without facing her sister, "I was there with him and Embry before coming here."

"What? You were? What happened? What did you say? What did he say?"

They are back to their reversed roles. Claire plugs the blow-dryer on and shrugs, "Nothing much. I mean, Embry was there too and then Aunt Emily called and I had to run back here before she called mom and ruined the surprise. We just said hello, basically."

"Huh" Grace gets up and sighs, "That was anti-climatic" she snickers and goes for the door, "Anyway I have to get ready for later" she stops and turns to her sister with an annoyed look, "Aren't you amazed by the speed this family can pull up a gathering?"

Claire laughs, "You know the boys, any excuse for free food…"

With another laugh, Grace leaves. Claire stands there in the quietness of her bedroom rehearing her last words in her head. They were spoken with such ease and familiarity that stings something deep inside of her. How had she been away from everything she knew of herself for so long? How had she survived away from her whole world? The loud sound of the blow-dryer shields those thoughts away and she bends over to dry her still semi-wet hair.

. . .

"I really hope this isn't how you welcome all your visitors."

Glancing up from between her legs, Claire sees Quil standing upside-down at her bedroom door. Her head immediately snaps up and she turns around to give him a grin.

"Quil!" she exclaims as if to make sure he was really there, "I didn't hear you coming in."

He looks from her to the blow-dryer and then raises his voice again, "Your mom tried to tell you, but…"

"Oh" she quickly turns it off and places it on her nightstand. Her hair's already dried enough and she smoothes it down with her hands.

"Can I?" he points at the bed.

She rolls her eyes, "Since when do you ask permission to sit on my bed?"

He sits awkwardly by the edge of the bed and she takes her seat next to the headboard. He keeps his face still and she chews at her bottom lip.

"I thought I'd only see you later tonight. You're going to Aunt Emily's, right?"

"Yeah, I am" he nods, shifts on his seat, "I just needed to talk to you about something first."

She sighs and sits up straight, waiting for worst case scenario, "Okay."

There's no easy way to start up this kind of conversation. Quil watches her carefully as she waits for him to speak. He weights rather or not it's worth talking about this now; maybe it can wait, maybe he can change it. But, deep down he knows there's no other way.

"You know how the pack shares a mind" he starts awkwardly and clears his throat once or twice, "So when you left… they saw what happened. You know… before."

Claire grimaces, "Always nice to know my uncle and cousins have that image of myself on their heads."

Quil chuckles nervously and ends up being a cough. He keeps going, "They know how you left and they saw how I was and—maybe that was a wrong move. I shouldn't have told you all those things to make you stay, I should've told you when you were ready and you weren't. I just scared you away."

She isn't used to see him fragile and opening up like this. The only time she did was the last time they saw each other all those years before. She hesitantly places her hand on top of one of his and gives him a gentle squeeze.

"I left because I've always wanted to. You didn't scare me off."

He shakes his head, looking down, "I also shouldn't—we shouldn't have done what we did."

She quickly retracts her hand and holds it with her other, "Why not?"

"It was wrong, Claire" her name rolls off his tongue with such care that she almost feels compelled to agree with him, "You were leaving and I was desperate…"

"You didn't want me, then?" she asks on a whisper.

His eyes soften, "I always want you, Claire" he reaches for her hand but she leans back against the headboard. He watches her face for a moment and then his eyes fall on the mattress again, "But that's not the point. Because of everything that happened we can't pretend that didn't happen; but we can't keep doing it either, so…"

"What?"

"Maybe we should slow down."

"Slow down?" she repeats with a scoff, "I haven't seen you in four years, Quil. You want slower than that?"

He runs a hand down his face, "Claire, I—"

"It's Uncle Sam, isn't it?" she interrupts him as she leans forward to stare him in the eyes, "I should've known better to recognize an Alpha's order. Well, tell him not to worry" she stands up from the bed and walks to the door, "I'll see you later."

He follows her but she just holds the door open and waits for him to leave. Defeated, he does so and hears as she slams the door shut behind him.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N.:** I won't try to explain my epic delay in updating this cos there are no excuses. Well, there is life. But other than that...

Oh and this un-beat-ed, so if there are too much typos, grammar errors or your good old time-traveling (when I mix the verb tenses), just overlook it, please? Thanks! You guys rock!

* * *

It's barely eight o'clock when the doorbell rings. Claire groans and gets up to answer the door. Who would really knock on someone's door at that time of the morning? The bright pair of green eyes that lit up once she swings the door open reminds her that only one person would.

"Holy shit, you really are back!" the girl curses under her breath while opening up a smile as bright as her eyes are at the moment.

Claire matches her grin, "In the flesh."

"You… _whore_!" she shrieks and throws her arms around Claire, holding her tight into a hug that means to make it up for all the time they've been apart. Olivia is six months younger and has been Claire's closest friend ever since they can remember.

When she finally lets go of the other girl, she sighs and stomps her foot, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

Claire only shrugs, "It was a surprise."

"And surprised I am!" she fake-punches Claire in the arm and walks past her and into the house.

They follow back to Claire's bedroom. Claire quietly closes the door behind them, watching as Olivia takes a seat by the foot of the bed.

"How are you?" she asks avoiding the subject at hand.

"Oh, screw that!" Olivia waves both hands in the air, "I'm great, now tell me what I wanna know." She practically bounces on the bed.

Claire rolls her eyes and sits on a chair across the room, "Ollie…" she groans inwardly.

"Don't you 'Ollie' me! You've been sending me all those long-ass emails since you left, but none of them said _why_ you left."

Playing with the hem of her t-shirt, Claire tries to stall, "It's not something to tell over the phone or via email. It was complicated."

"Which is why you said you'd tell me once you were back," Olivia ads and crosses her legs on top of each other with a sigh, "So now spill it."

"Okay" Claire agrees reluctantly. She takes a deep breath and tries to make the words sound as easy as they seem to be inside her head, "I… it was Quil."

Olivia frowns, "Quil made you leave?"

"No. We—God, it was such a mess. Remember that Donnie Holgan's party we had after prom?"

One of Olivia's eyebrows shoots up, "The one you never showed up after you convinced me to let you borrow my gorgeous aqua cocktail dress? The very same dress I never, ever saw it again?"

Claire is about to roll her eyes when she remembers something, "Oh! I found it yesterday while unpacking." She gets up and goes to her closet. After a few minutes searching around, she comes up with the dress neatly folded in her hands. She hands it to Olivia with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, though…"

When Olivia holds the dress up in front of her, she can see the full ripped damage, "Jesus, Claire! What happened to my dress?"

She shrugs, "I don't know. One minute Quil was saying I couldn't leave, then I yelled, he pleaded, I yelled some more and then—next thing I know… he was ripping the dress and we were on his bed."

"_Shut up!_" Olivia shrieks and gets up from the bed on a jump, "You had sex with Quil?!"

Claire glances from her to the door and back to her again, "Would you keep your voice down!"

"Wait!" Olivia holds her hands up to stop the other girl and backs up again on the bed, "You said that Paolo guy in Italy popped your cherry."

"Well, he didn't." Claire looks down and twitches her mouth to the side, "Sorry I lied about that."

Olivia almost burst into laughs, "Oh, what-_ever_! Tell me about Quil. Was it awesome? Is he huge? Oh my God, he's so hot. You know I had a crush on him, right?"

"Yes!" Claire raises her voice to keep Olivia from going on. She tries to keep her own laugh when she sees the excitement on the other girl's face, "And I'm not telling you anything. It _was _amazing, but then it got too intense too fast."

Olivia makes a face, "Ouch."

This time Claire does laugh, "Not like that!" she throws a pillow at Olivia's head, but she ducks. They laugh again and when it dies, Claire stares at the floor, "He said—he said he loved me. While we were…"

"He didn't."

"He did."

"Such a girl" Olivia scoffs, "Just killed all his hotness."

Ignoring the last remark, Claire leans back on the chair and sighs, "I didn't know what to do, what to say. Then the next morning got even more serious 'cause he told me he had been in love with me for a long time. That's why he didn't want me to leave."

"You know you were in love with him too, right?" Olivia shrugs, "Anyone could see that. Except, maybe, him."

"I knew," Claire's voice comes out as a whisper, "I told him so. But I also couldn't start anything or I'd never go away. I'd have settled for him, I know I would have. And I really still wanted to leave and… live. So I left anyway before I had any second thoughts."

"Oh, Claire…" Olivia reaches out to take one of Claire's hands and holds it between both of hers, "You're such an idiot."

Claire laughs and takes her hand back, "Thanks."

"Have you seen him yet?"

"Yeah. He came here and then we met at my aunt's last night, but we barely spoke to each other. He wants to pretend like nothing happened to us."

Olivia's jaw drops, "What?!"

"I think he regrets it or something, I don't know."

"Do _you_?"

"No," Claire shakes her head a little sad, "I just wish it had happened now, after I was done with the rest of the world."

"Whoa. Are you really? I never thought I'd hear you say that."

"Guess I am."

They are silent for a moment until Olivia huffs and gets up, walking to Claire.

"Ok, you have to talk to him."

"I tried!" Claire's eyebrows shoot up as she tries to explain, "But he's being stupid so I don't care."

"Shut up" Olivia slaps Claire's shoulder, "You so do care. Swallow your useless pride and go talk to him."

Claire only glares at her, "Maybe."

. . .

Later in the afternoon, Claire goes to Emily and Sam's to help Emily with the kids while she does her house work. She's sitting on a chair by the kitchen door while Emily goes around the counter, fixing lunch for later. Claire is watching little Hannah as she runs around the backyard wobbling after her big brother. She even trips and falls down once, but Sammie comes back and helps her up. Claire smiles warmly at the kinds and tilts her head inside to Emily.

"I'm sorry I missed her being born."

"That's ok," Emily says pulling a loaf of bread from the grocery bag, "Just don't make another disappearing act and you shouldn't miss anything else."

At that, Claire slightly blushes. She can't believe she's embarrassed by that, it's her life and it was her choice to leave. Not even her own parents made her feel guilty or self-conscious of her decision to go abroad. She fidgets with her fingers for a moment and nods a little.

"You know why I left."

"Yes, I do." Emily looks at her carefully and places one hand on the counter, to properly look at her niece, "I just don't know why you came back. Was it for him?"

"I don't know." Claire shrugs, finally looking up, "Maybe in some level. But anyway, he doesn't seem all that thrilled to see me."

Emily scoffs at that and crosses her arms against her chest, doubtfully, "Have you two talked yet?"

"Not exactly. We tried, but…" she trails off, glancing at the kids outside and then back to her aunt with hesitation, "I didn't want to bring you to the middle of this, Aunt Em, but do you think you could talk to Uncle Sam?"

"About what?"

"About him keeping his Alpha nose out of it. This is none of his business—"

"Claire" Emily softly raises her voice to interrupt the girl, "The relationship between a wolf and his imprintee is the most powerful one and it affects the wolf the strongest. That influences the rest of the pack, naturally, and also the ones around you two. So, of course, it's your Uncle Sam's business. And you know he means no harm."

Claire shakes her head, "He doesn't want us to be together."

Emily arches one eyebrow, "Is that what Quil said?"

"No." She shrugs and looks around, "But he wants to go back and slow down. Apparently, Uncle Sam doesn't think us moving forward is such a good idea."

Emily walks next to Claire on the chair and places one hand on the girl's shoulder, "He just wants to make sure you two are on the same page. So you don't hurt each other like you've done before."

"Like _I_'ve done before." Claire corrects and sniffs, looking up at her aunt, "I really hurt him, didn't I?"

Emily doesn't nod, she just runs one hand down Claire's hair, "You can make things right, just talk to him. If that's what you really want."

"It is. But, it's kind of scary 'cause it seems like he's always gonna love me so much more. Was it like that for you and Uncle Sam?"

"At first, yes," Emily ponders, pulling a chair to sit next to Claire, "Their love and dedication can be pretty overwhelming. But, if you're sure you love him back it'll eventually even out. I can't tell you that Sam loves me more than I love him because that's not true anymore."

Claire listens and only nods in response. Emily offers a smile and touches the girl's arm to get her attention again.

"Talk to him, Claire."

She nods again, "I'll talk to him."

. . .

It's the last stroke of the nail polish brush she has so her nails are finally done and just as Claire is about to do it, Grace plops down on the couch next to her, making her smear the nail polish all over her big toe. She curses and jabs her elbow on her sister's ribs. Grace yelps and throws one of the couch cushions at her younger sister's head. Claire screams for her mom who pops in from the kitchen.

"Gracie," she says on a soft tone, completely ignoring the death glares the two sisters are sending to each other, "What time is Joshua coming tomorrow?"

Grace huffs and curls away from Claire, "Around seven, I think."

"Oh, good!"

"Who's Joshua?" Claire asks Grace and sticks out her tongue to her.

Grace rolls her eyes, "My boyfriend."

"You're seeing someone?" she asks again, now genuinely interested, "Why didn't I know this?"

Their mother jumps in, "Joshua's a very discreet boy. He's very polite and really good to Gracie, too." She's beaming with proud.

Claire stiffs a laugh, "Wow. Sounds perfect! When do I get the honor to meet him?"

"He's coming tomorrow," their mother continued, "He wants to meet you."

"What?" she scrunches up her nose in confusion, "I didn't even know he existed."

Turning off the TV, Grace stands up and stomps away from the living room, "You were too busy living your life to know."

Claire and her mother watch Grace leave in silence.

"Don't listen to her. You're gonna love Joshua!"

She gets a kiss from her mother and is left alone in the room. She finishes painting her toes and sighs, glancing up. All the time she's been away from home she was only thinking of her, of how much she needed to be away and on her own, how everything was going to be awesome. She never really stopped to think how that would affect people other than her mom and dad.

She hurt Quil, she missed Hannah being born, she lost the no-secrets bond with her sister and she really, really doesn't want to know any more down sides of her absence. She needs to start making amends.

After a quick stop on her bedroom, she walks past the kitchen and yells to her mother that she's leaving but will be right back and oh, by the way, she's taking the keys to the car.

The very short drive between her house and down the street to Quil and Embry's garage is quick and in minutes she's standing by the semi-closed big door. She ducks and walks in, standing on the other side and staring at Quil's back as he works on a car.

She taps her foot on the floor and clears her throat. Quil doesn't budge.

"I thought werewolves had their senses enhanced."

"I heard you," his reply comes from under the hood of the car, "Just thought that if you're yelling at me, it could wait a little longer until you got here."

She bites her lip, "I'm not here to yell at you. It's just—," she sighs and waits for him to stand up properly and look at her. It takes a while before he gets the hint and does it so.

He grabs a dirty rag and wipes his hands, waiting for her to continue.

"It feels wrong to be back at my house without you around. Every time I go to the kitchen I expect to find you there stealing our food. I miss watching crappy movies on TV, jogging around the beach, holding your hand whenever I feel like it, hugging you when I'm cold. You know? Like we did before. I really miss that."

There, she says it all in one breath. When she finishes, her chest is heaving up and down from lack of enough air and anticipation to Quil's response. She's not used to be in the situation, so fragile and vulnerable. She likes to keep things in check, herself, her own feelings and Quil be damned for making her feel otherwise.

"I know," he breaks his silence with a soft sigh, "I miss it, too. But you said you didn't want to come back like before."

"And I don't," she takes one anxious step towards him, "But I don't want this either. I really miss you, Quil."

"I miss you too, Claire."

His eyes are pained and Claire wants to kick herself for making him feel like that, for causing him pain. She twists her fingers together and takes one deep breath.

"So, okay then. If acting like before it's what it takes to have you back in my life that way then, fine. I'll do it. Just, please. Just—"

The wind is knocked out of her chest and she loses the ground under her feet. Quil holds her tightly against him in a bear hug. He keeps her close until she starts to squirm for air. He settles her down, but keeps his arms around her, breathing into her hair.

"Thank you."

* * *


End file.
